1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing apparatus that is capable of communicating with an information processing apparatus, for example, to a technology for restricting printing.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, reductions in the total cost of ownership (TCO) including not only the initial installation costs for printing apparatuses and systems but also the costs of consumable supplies, such as print sheets and coloring agents typified by toner, have drawn great attention for reducing office costs or for conservation of the global environment.
In addition, in terms of security, systems in which only particular users are able to perform printing are available.
There has been a problem, for example, in which anyone who can access a network is able to perform printing using a printing apparatus installed in an office.
Since printing restrictions are not imposed on anyone and no trace of printing is left, users can readily perform unauthorized printing without fear of consequences. Thus, an excessive amount of printing is often performed, resulting in an increase in the office costs. In addition, in order to reduce the amount of consumable supplies, such as print sheets and toner, to be used, restrictions may be imposed on the maximum number of printable pages, execution of single-sided printing, and execution of color printing.
Under such circumstances, many printing systems are available. As a first system, a printing system in which printing restrictions are controlled using address information, such as an IP address in a transmission control protocol/internet protocol (TCP/IP), is available. In addition, as a second system, a printing system in which only a user who successfully completes user authentication is allowed to perform printing is available.
However, the first system involves blanket control in which a restriction is imposed on a particular IP address, and the first system cannot achieve more individualized control, such as restricting the maximum number of sheets to be output for a particular user. In the second system, although control is performed such that only a particular user is allowed to perform printing, a restriction cannot be imposed on settings of a printing format.
In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a printing format restriction method is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-337803. In this method, for each user, a permitted printing method, such as N-up printing, and printing conditions, such as the maximum number of printable pages, are set. In addition, user information added to a print job is identified, and printing is performed by the printing method permitted for the user.
A technology disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-092255 is also available. In this technology, in order to perform distributed printing with unified fonts while suppressing a reduction in the efficiency of printing processing, a host computer sets printing conditions entered from an input unit with a setting unit. A determination unit determines whether the printing conditions include designated distributed printing in which print data is printed by a plurality of printers. If the determination unit determines that the printing conditions are set to distributed printing, a setting screen indicating that a font setting restriction unit in the setting unit does not accept settings for use of font data stored in a printing apparatus is displayed on a display unit.
In the printing system according to Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-337803, a printing format restriction is imposed on each user. However, this method has the problems described below.
Since restrictions relating to printing formats, such as single-sided printing, duplex printing, color printing, monochrome printing, and N-up printing, are imposed on each user, a particular user cannot perform single-sided printing, color printing, and 1-up printing.
Although such restrictions do not cause problems in making materials for division meetings or the like, processing using restricted functions may be required according to the printing purpose, for example, for making materials for a customer presentation, legal documents, or the like. Thus, almost all the printing formats are permitted to everyone, resulting in failure to attain the original purpose of restriction.
In the technology disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-092255, for print data received from a particular user, if printing conditions set for the user are different from printing conditions set by a printing condition setting unit, a printing request is denied. Thus, the running cost of the printing apparatus including print sheets can be reduced.
However, in such control for setting printing conditions for each user, execution of a print job cannot be restricted according to a printing purpose of the user. Thus, a printing format cannot be restricted on the basis of both the identity of the user and the printing purpose. Since a printing format restriction imposed on each user is insufficient for restricting execution of a print job on the basis of both the identity of a user and a printing purpose, almost all the printing formats are permitted to everyone, resulting in failure to attain the original purpose of restriction.
In a case where all the print jobs are canceled without exception when printing conditions are not satisfied, even if the number of printed pages has not yet reached the maximum number of printable pages that is allocated to a user, a request, for example, for performing printing until the number of printed pages reaches the maximum number of printable pages cannot be flexibly accepted, thus reducing the level of convenience.
In addition, in the technology disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-092255, management of a printing purpose for which a printing format restriction is imposed and a history including a print job is not performed. Thus, an administrator cannot determine from a history whether a printing purpose of each user is authorized or unauthorized. Thus, a user who performs printing in which a printing restriction is violated cannot be identified.